On Wednesday 30 August, the special representative from Italy's foreign affairs ministry for the Western Balkans summit, Michele Giacomelli, called for pressure to be maintained on Bosnia-Herzegovina so that it might sign the European Transport Community Treaty – to which the other five Western Balkans countries already belong (see EUROPE 11829).
After eight years of negotiations, and despite the country initialling the agreement in June, Sarajevo did not in the end sign the Treaty at the summit in Trieste on 12 July because the Republika Srpska wanted not only its transport minister to take part in the transport discussions, but also the transport ministers from its entities.
"The country realises that domestic issues prevail over wisdom, but there is much pressure from local actors and from the region on Bosnia-Herzegovina's different actors (for it to sign). Pressure must be maintained for the country to understand the need for a change in attitude", Giacomelli told MEPs from the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
"Bosnia-Herzegovina is in the process of losing four important projects. Money is needed for development", he said. Due to the fact the treaty was not signed, the country could lose EU funding (€46.1 million) for four connectivity projects in the transport sector; "The country is in a fragile and complex situation. There is a feeling of urgency, but it is at the political level that action must be taken", Giacomelli summed up.
Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, the director for the Western Balkans at the European Commission's DG NEAR, stated that if Sarajevo signed the agreement "in September or the autumn, the funding for the projects would not be lost" for the country.
Giacomelli also hailed the Berlin process from which the Trieste summit derives, saying that the Balkans countries considered it as "a guarantee that we are interested in their economic development". "The process of summits is very useful for the adoption of structural reforms for the Western Balkans", he added. In Calavera's view, the process brings all the Western Balkans leaders together around the same table. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)